


Late Afternoon Nights

by SpiralEnigma



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Gen, Humanstuck, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-28
Updated: 2013-04-28
Packaged: 2017-12-09 19:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/776982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiralEnigma/pseuds/SpiralEnigma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat Vantas is very good at hiding the darker facts about himself. And even better at getting into trouble along with his notorious group of higher placed friends. But he begins questioning his life, his decisions, and his relationships when his blind law-aspiring classmate joins him along the ride for his school services and aggravates him (as well as fascinates him) to the ends of the planet and back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Late Afternoon Nights

**Author's Note:**

> Oh dear, I've finally written my first Homestuck fanfiction. I'm finally all grown up. But yeah, Karkat/Terezi is my OTP and I've been wanting to contribute something to them for a long time now. This is HEAVILY inspired by and pretty much follows "A Walk to Remember" by Nicholas Sparks (one of my favorite romances) so you'll be seeing tons of references and some changes as well. 
> 
> Ugh, I haven't written properly in so long and am very rusty so feel free to critique/point out any mistakes/let me know if anyone sounds too OOC! 
> 
> PS I'm a loaded college student at the moment who gets on blocks very easily so I apologize if updates take forever and a day.
> 
> So yeah.
> 
> Enjoy! OTL

"I want to go back to the dance."

Her words were slightly slurred, but the heated shade of pink that was spread across Vriska Serket's cheeks was a set point to what the group had been doing previously. She poked out her lower lip at the other proclaimed ‘high and mighty’ of the group. Eridan paid no heed to his black crush's complaint, currently reaching behind and pulling back Feferi's cascade of loose black curls to try and receive more access to her face.

"Dangit Fef, why do you have to let your hair grow so damn long and wild…” He growled against her neck as the girl currently pressed between him and the ------ let her head fall back as she let out a drunken squeal of laughter. "I really don't see what's so funny abou-" More laughter. "Fef that wasn't intended to be a fuckin' fish pun and you know i-"

"Don't be getting the motherfucking freak on at this time, friends." Vriska shifted her single eye to the hood of the violet colored Porsche as Gamzee lounged on top of it, slowly yet intensely taking a deep inhale of a fat joint, weirdly enough his grin didn't seem to leave his face the whole time.

Though that could've of course just been that weird paint he was always wearing. 

"Nitram is gonna be here any motherfucking minute, wouldn't want to expose the kid to that motherfucking scene now would we motherfuckers?" He let his head lull to the side of the hood, exhaling a thick cloud of marijuana onto the pair below him, which left Eridan hacking and staggering away from Feferi, using his scarf to cover his face while the self claimed sea princess just burst out laughing yet again, waving her hand in front of her face to clear her vision of the smoke. "Fuckin' hell Gam, are you trying' to suffocate us?? It's difficult enough that the only time Fef is actually showin' an interest she can't stop fuckin' laughin' and we've got to watch some low blood try to prove himself. And all because you think he's a good rapper or whatever the glub." His speech slipped on every w and v of his small rant, only leaving Feferi laughing harder than ever. “Okay I didn’t intend to let THAT one slip.” 

"As much fun as it would be to see Pupa actually try to fly…" Vriska licked her lips, slowly looked over at the last two boys of the group, holding her knees tightly to her chest from her own spot on the patch of grass. "I reeeeeeeeally want to go back." Her eye rested on Karkat, currently leaning against the car opposite of Eridan's next to Dave Strider, his hands shoved deep in his pockets and nearly half of his face hidden beneath his black turtleneck. His own face was flushed enough from the amount of alcohol consumed among the group and he was thankful enough for the night sky hiding most of his face. 

"Don't even look at me." He grumbled, quickly catching Vriska's puppy eye and shoving his hands even deeper into his pockets. "Took enough out of my think pan trying to remember where this place even is, not taking anymore out of it to try and find the school again." Dave let out a chuckle and nudged his best bro's shoulder, before standing up straight and rubbing his hands together. "If you want to go back to have a good time Serket, I can assure you." His hands then went down to his belt buckle. "We could have a good time right here. Get ready to get your freak on." 

Vriska made a face, untucking one of her legs to kick out at him, before standing up and brushing herself off. "Put your freak away before you hurt somebody. Seeing Pupa try to fly suddenly got way more interesting."

Karkat let his shoulders sag with relief. It had been relevant to him for a while now that Serket still wasn't over their not so recent breakup. In fact, more than half of the time she acted as if they hadn't broken up at all, only adding to the frustration he felt about the girl during and after their relationship.

Although it was safe to say that he wasn’t happy in the relationship, a small part of him also ended it out of fear. For the same reason he was hiding his face within his turtleneck at that moment. Vriska always wanted to get close.

Too close. 

His thoughts were interrupted by the clattering sounds of an old truck and he jerked his head up. An ancient and butt ugly truck was turning the corner, aiming for the empty parking spot just next to Eridan’s car, before rattling to a stop and then becoming silent, the silhouette of the lanky Taurus could be clearly seen out one of the windows in the darkness.

Tavros had arrived. 

“Well well motherfucking well!” Gamzee sat up from his spot on top of Eridan’s car, grinning widely with tendrils of smoke leaking out between his yellowing teeth. “Tavbro, ya finally made it!” He took one last inhale of the now festering roach before flicking it aside and clumsily making his way off of the car, accidentally kicking it in a few places, despite Eridan’s protests. “I could’ve sworn I said motherfucking 10 o’clock…how long has it been now…Eridan brother didn’t I say 10 o’motherfucking clock?” 

“H-hey…” Tavros had slowly made his way out of the old truck while Gamzee had his little show and was now standing near both heads of the cars, his hands in his pockets and his head, despite trying to hold it up high in confidence, was still bowed a bit, eyes shifting every so often at his socked sandals.  
“Again with those sandals, Pupa?” Vriska seemed to laugh and purr at the same time as she casually stood next to him, running her fingers through his thick mop of a mohawk, in desperate need of a trim. “How do you expect to be one of us if you’ve still got the fashion sense of your childhood?” 

Tavros visibly winced as the Serket girl ran her sharp blue nails down and up his scalp, taking a step sideways away from her. “T-the fact that you’ve been paying attention to what I’ve been wearing all these years is honestly kind of unsettlin-“

“Ain’t got no motherfucking time for arguing Tavbro!” Gamzee had finally found use of his legs and staggered over to Tavros, swinging a lanky arm around his shoulders, ignoring the muttered curses Eridan was making as he tried to indicate the damage of the scratches on his car as well as keeping Feferi from falling on her ass. “Remember we all came on down to this spot for a motherfucking reason…am I right brothers, am I right?” 

“Yeah yeah, because you want Pupa to become a part of us for some reason or whatever…I still think it’s something else other then the fact that he has such siiiiiiiick raps.” Vriska waved her hands around before stuffing them back in her pockets. 

“Why don’t we stick to the original point of us all meeting here so we can get it over with and you can go back to your fucking cliché high school dance –and fuck no I will not be joining you! – And we can all resume to what we were originally planned for the night, whether it be continuing to try getting in the smashed fish princess’s pants or getting stoned to the point where you find yourself in the front of Crocker’s Bakery sitting in a puddle of your own fucking drool!” Karkat was still insistent on keeping himself in the shadows but all of those who were sober could practically feel the blaze of his glare at that moment.

Vriska paused and merely mumbled to herself in response to yet another one of the Vantas’ boy’s tantrums, shoving her fists even deeper into her pockets before grinning once again and taking one out, opening up her fist to reveal her trademark dice. “Well in that case we should make this little experiment interesting. Pupa, are you aware of what you have to do to earn the glory of our presence?”

“Uhm…not really…” Tavros had his own hands stuffed in his pockets at this point, shrugging his shoulders a couple times and avoiding making eye contact with any of them. “Gamzee just said I had to do something that…all of you have had to do to earn a place in the group?”

“That’s right Tavbro.” Gamzee grinned, tightening his grip around the smaller boy’s shoulders and turning him into the direction of the left pathway away from the parking lot. “We’ve all motherfucking done it, and now it’s your go.” As if on cue, he started pushing Tavros down along the path, his strides long and with a bit of a limp, yet still confidant. 

“This…this isn’t some sort of drug thing or something is it?”

“Dude, are you kidding? Do you think we even want to be remotely similar to the doof sprawled all over you?” Dave had caught up along with the others, a grumbling Karkat trailing closely behind him.

“In case you’re along part that side of the town – which you probably are – and don’t read or watch the news ever,” Eridan sneered a bit on his words as he walked along with the group, keeping his arm around Feferi for support, whom had finally calmed down from her laughing fit and concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. “We’re in the Peixes industry. Y’know, the company that teamed up with Crocker Corp just this last year. This place has got it all it needs to be successful now that the money has doubled. Includin’ this little area.”

At that point the group rounded a building to be greeted to a water tower. It stood about twenty feet in the air, a small platform and latter set trailing up the side of it and a pipe leading down into a small pool area right below the tower, the water calmly making it’s way through the pipe and into the pool, undisturbed. The whole area in general wasn't too large, but once seeing it up close and the key to popularity was in hand, it seemed like a fall you would find in the Amazon.

“…. W-what about this area again??” Tavros at this point was working up a sweat and he was thankful that it was too dark for the others to be able to tell. 

“Weeeeeeeell,” Vriska had her grin back and working as she fiddled with the dice around in her hand, long slender fingers hooking them in between every so often. “As Makara here has mentioned, we’ve all done it before.” She strolled over to the other side of Tavros and pointed up to the water tower. “See that? See the ladder and platform?”

“I uh…wish I could say I couldn’t…”

“You’ve got to show us your best diving trick Pupa. This is finally your chance to fly! Aren’t you excited??” Vriska practically had her face pressed to Tavros’ at this point, which had caused a tremble in his knees.

“Man she’s just fucking with ya, Bro.” Gamzee laughed as his head fell back, running a finger through his messy (and presumably) unwashed hair. “All ya gotta do is motherfucking dip into that little pool. And then that’s it. You are motherfucking one of us.”

“You best glubbing hurry though…” Eridan whipped his head down to see Feferi finally trying to lift her own head, rubbing at her eyes with a closed fist, her pink goggled perched messily on the top of her head. “They patrol this area every half hour…why did you arrive so late, Tav?” She whined as she clung to Eridan for all the more support. “We have to speed this up now.” 

“I uh…” Tavros kept looking back and forth between the water tower and the notorious group of high schoolers in front of him, having a quick debate in his head whether he keep himself alive or earn a place in the group he strived to impress. “It’s awfully high…”

“Mother of fuck.” Karkat took his hands out of his pockets and practically stomped over to the quivering Taurus, standing in front of him and began working himself out of the lightweight jacket he was wearing over his turtleneck. “Out of pure frustration and the likeliness of NOT getting caught tonight, I’ll bite the fucking bullet and jump with you. Sound good to you, you pansy?”

Tavros merely stared at Karkat for a few moments as the latter proceeded to peel off his turtleneck, tossing it to the ground and bringing his hands down to the zipper of his jeans, before slowly reaching up and shrugging out of his short sleeved denim jacket. “I…I guess I could go along with that. Thanks Karka-“ 

“Stuff it, Nitram.” 

“At the same time though, this is pretty exciting…” Feferi brought her drunken gaze up once again and looked all around the small group, whom were all now concentrated on the pair as they took off what they couldn’t be bothered having get wet. “Don’t you think? It’s not every night that we have a new friend joining us!” Her head lolled over on Eridan’s shoulder at this point as she grinned up at him, the hipster rolling his eyes behind his thick-rimmed glasses in response. “Yeah yeah Fef, I’m really lookin’ forward to cleanin’ up your puke and makin’ up an excuse to your mum later. Really, I’m feelin’ just peachy.”

“Hey Serket, it’s like one of those reoccurring dreams you have.” Dave used Vriska’s shoulder as his personal armrest as the two boys wrapped up the little strip show. “Do you dare deny?” He earned a growl and a sharp elbow in the stomach as she shrugged his arm off of her and walked right up to the pair. “Alright you lot…Karkat, thank you for volunteering to be Pupa’s own personal Tinkerbull, that was real cute.”

“Fuck off.”

“Anyways, the plan is that the two of you will climb up to the top as previously mentioned.” Pointing one sharp blue nail to the water tower, Vriska then gestured to her other hand, which contained the eight dice. “Now because it’s so dark and we have limited time, I’m only going to use one of these for now. Pupa, it’s your duty to bring this back to me after you enjoy your little swim. Of course it’s not absolutely necessary I suppose…but this dice set IS my most treasured item I own…whoooooooops.” Vriska then tossed one of the small blue dice over all of their heads, across the pathway, and watched it land with a quiet ‘plunk’ into the pool. “Well that’s a shame…I’m going to be REALLY upset if I lose a piece to my dice…we don’t want to see me upset now, do we Pupa?”

“You’re a real bitch tonight, aren’t you Serket…” Karkat grumbled again as he practically saw all the blood drain from Tavros’ face, even in the dark. “Come on then…we don’t have much time left.” He grabbed the shaking boy’s arm and led the way over to the end of the ladder leading up the tower. 

“Woohoooooo!” Gamzee began to show excitement through his stoned being as he brought both arms above his head. “They’re doing this! They’re motherfucking doing this!” Vriska smirked and folded her arms whilst Dave slipped his hands in the pockets of his jeans, watching the two of them begin to make their way up the tower, thankful that his aviators were able to hide the concerned look in his eyes. 

“Say…uh, how deep is that pool area thing anyway?” Tavros spoke a bit louder this time as he climbed up the latter after Karkat, his main focus being not to look down. 

“Will you be pissing your pants less if I tell you there’s nothing to be afraid of?” Karkat spoke with a grunt in his voice as he climbed. “It’s been said over and over at this point. We’ve all done it before and look at us all now. Alive, footloose, and fancy fucking free.”

“Sorry…I’ve never done anything like this before you see-“

“You don’t say.”

“But really, thanks for doing this with me Karkat. I was pretty close to just chickening out and leaving at that point, heh…”

“Yeah. I could tell.” Hoisting himself up on the platform, Karkat turned and offered a hand which Tavros gladly accepted, pulling him carefully up and onto his feet. At this point, Tavros had no choice but to look down at what seemed like his demise. The water remained undisturbed at the bottom, lightly rippling from the small stream coming from the pipe. 

“Alright you two!” Vriska cupped her hands over her mouth and called up to them. “Remember we don’t have a lot of time, so it’s best to get this done and over with! Come on Pupa! Fly! Fly for us!”

Tavros only laughed nervously before stepping up aside Karkat at the edge of the platform. “Maybe after this she’ll finally ditch that name for me…and maybe just stop being the bane of my existence in general.”

Karkat couldn’t help but crack a smile at that. “I don’t think there’ll be a day where Vriska isn’t the bane of at least five people’s existence. Now. On the count of three, we jump. Got it?”

“Y-yeah. I’m ready.”

“Alright. It starts now. One.”

Karkat gripped the bar edge of the platform, both him and Tavros looking as if they were about to partake in a marathon and the gun was about to go off.

“Two.”

Sneaking a glance to his side, Karkat could see Tavros’ knuckles turning white with how tightly he was gripping his own bar. But they were slowly starting to loosen.

“…Three!”

Tavros, who had had his eyes clenched tightly shut, opened them widely at that point and let go of the bar completely.

And then he leaped.

The thrill of the jump spread through him like wildfire and he almost smiled. Almost. Before he was hit with the sudden realization.

Karkat wasn’t in the air with him. 

 

Both Gamzee and Vriska couldn’t help but burst into laughter as Tavros suddenly began to flop around in the air as he fell from the tower, Karkat straightening his posture from the platform. 

“Who knew Pupa was so graceful at this flying thing?!” Vriska hooted as all six of them watched as the flailing boy stuck the water with a loud splash, although it sounded more like a smacking noise with the force. “Ohohoh man! Ouch!”

“Tavbro! You did it Tavbro! You motherfucking proved yourself!” Gamzee seemed genuinely excited as he clapped his hands, Dave let out a small half smile in relief as he took his hands out of his pockets. 

But he frowned again when the boy resurfaced.

Unmoving.

“Uhm guys…Gam…why isn’t he moving.” Sounding more like stating a fact than questioning, Eridan furrowed his brow as he forced Fef to stand up on her own and tried to focus more, the darkness making it all the more difficult.

“Oh…oh my God.” Vriska’s pupils shrunk as she took one step backwards.

“Karkat!”

The named boy’s heartbeat had sped up when he saw Tavros resurface…seemingly unconscious nonetheless. This wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t what he had intended to happen and yet it was happening anyway. And though he wouldn’t admit it to himself, he was becoming increasingly scared.

“KARKAT!!! HE’S HURT!” 

It was as if Vriska’s scream was it’s own kick-starter. Karkat flinched and then quickly grabbed hold of the pipe that made it’s way into the pool, swinging his legs around it and using it to slide downwards, the metal burning his skin with the force but he could give less of a fuck at that point. 

He hit the water with another loud splash and quickly resurfaced, gasping loudly and shifting himself, using the best of his almost nonexistent swimming abilities to make his way over to the unconscious Tavros. 

“Hurry Karkat! Be careful!” The shock of the situation seemed to bring both Gamzee and Feferi out of their states for the time being, all five of them standing at the edge of the pool with their arms stretched out. “Bring him over here!” 

Spluttering and trying his best to keep the water out of his eyes and nose while supporting Tavros all at the same time wasn’t working out too well. Karkat struggled to get the both of them over to the side of the pool, noticing a trinkle of blood dripping down the side of Tavros’ face and mixing in with the water. “Shit…shit shit shit…” 

“Watch his head!” Dave took control from there, reaching forward and grabbing hold of Tavros’ shoulders as the two of them neared towards the edge, using the crook of his elbow as a pillow for his head and pulling him out of Karkat’s grasp. Eridan joined in by taking Tavros by his lower torso and the two of them pulled him out, resting him on the edge. 

“Is he alive?? Goddamnit Dave, tell me if he’s alive!!” Vriska was shaking like no other, reaching out to help Karkat out of the water. He quickly jerked his hand away and crouched over Tavros, checking his every feature and putting his hand on his chest. “Come on you idiot…don’t do this…”

“Hey, who’s over there?!”

“Eep!” Feferi squeaked as she saw the glow of a flashlight on the other side of the water tower. “We’re out of time! We’ve got to go! ERIDAN!” She grabbed the end of her best friend’s scarf and yanked tightly, making the boy cry out. “WE’VE GOT TO GLUBBING GO THEY’RE GONNA GET US!”

“Shit brothers, we let motherfucking time get the best of us!” Gamzee stood up at that point, wavering slightly but keeping his ground for now. “Let’s split before they split us!” As if on cue, Eridan, lead by Feferi, and Gamzee turned and fled in the direction of the parking lot, calling at them to follow. 

“Guys, come on!” Vriska grabbed Dave’s arm and forcing him to his feet, her eyes widening when she could hear the mumble of the night watch guard in the distance, talking into his speaker that they were going to need back up. “Karkat just leave him!! We’re gonna get caught!”

“Karkat, he’s going to fine, come on!” Dave attempted to talk reason he didn’t even know was true or not, but knew that Karkat wasn’t going to budge when he didn’t look up from Tavros’ limp body. 

His best friend and his ex stared at him for a few seconds longer before turning and running after the previous three. “COME ON KARKAT!”

Karkat knew that guards were going to show up. He knew and he could practically hear his heartbeat slamming around in his chest, but he kept his own hand over Tavros’. He wasn’t going to walk away from this scene until he knew for sure if the Nitram kid was done for. “Wake up…you sack of shit wake up…”

The security guard had seemed to have disappeared at that point, the flashlight nowhere in sight. But it didn’t take too long before he saw a group of flashlights in the distance. Of course he should’ve known this in the first place, Crocker Corp was powerful. Combined with Peixes, it was indestructible. If Feferi’s mother had wanted a tank and army doing the night watch, then it would be no surprise if Karkat found himself face to face with the nose of a tank right then and now.

A few extremely long seconds passed by before Tavros coughed, Karkat’s heartbeat slowing down a bit in relief but speeding up again instantly. No water came out, which further more proved that the force of his fall was too much for the shallowness of the pool. Karkat wasn’t able to tell where the blood on his face had come from, but there wasn’t too much of it now, so it couldn’t have been a head injury. He groaned and kept his eyes shut in pain, before opening them and staring up at Karkat.

Karkat who had lied to him. Tavros’ eyes went wide with many emotions. Shock. Betrayal.

But mostly fear as he uttered out the only words Karkat could bear to hear at that point. 

“Karkat…I…I can’t feel my legs.”

That was when he ran.


End file.
